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1939: When Guisborough Welcomed Middlesbrough’s Evacuees
Highcliffe Nab, that well-known sandstone crag that dominates the view from Guisborough, has been the subject of these posts many times. But Kemplah, which sits in its shadow, doesn’t get nearly enough attention. The old settlers clearly thought this promontory was important since there’s evidence of both early British and Roman activity there. The name…
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Newton Wood’s Hidden Industrial Heritage
This morning’s low cloud cover meant there was no chance of capturing any stunning shots of the Cleveland Hills, so I turned my attention to something closer to the ground. Folk often ask me about this brick and concrete structure at the Cliff Rigg end of Newton Wood, recently cleared of bracken and brambles by…
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Mists, Mellow Fruitfulness, and the March to Winter
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; John Keats’s “Ode to Autumn” may well be a charming little tribute to the season’s so-called beauty and bounty. His “mists and mellow fruitfulness” certainly make for lovely poetic fodder. Yet, the mist draping the North York Moors today and the heavily burdened…
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Low Slitt Lead Mine, Weardale
This is what’s left of the Low Slitt Lead Mine, once one of the biggest mines in the North Pennines. The mine had a long history, with lead ore extraction going on as early as two centuries before it really took off in the early 1700s, thanks to the efforts of the Sir William Blackett…
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90 Metres of Progress: The Curious Case of a New Bridleway
It is a curious thing, is it not, that the powers-that-be, in their infinite wisdom, believed they could neatly parcel up the English countryside like so many slices of cake, each path and bridleway served with a side of bureaucracy. Under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act of 1949, a grand endeavour…
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The Valais Blacknose: A Woolly Aristocrat of the Alps
Imagine, if you will, a sheep so hardy that it has been roaming about the Swiss mountains since the 1400s. Enter the Valais Blacknose, or, for those who fancy a bit of local colour, the Walliser Schwarznasenschaf. These creatures, bred for the Alpine chill, sport a thick, white fleece that allows them to strut about…
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Roseberry’s Reckoning — Rainbow’s End
The small but iconic Roseberry Topping, the crown jewel of the Cleveland Hills, offers itself as the venue for what many consider to be an annual spectacle of human folly: a race up and down its steep slopes, commencing from the village of Newton-under-Roseberry. This brief but brutal course, infamous for its lung-searing ascent followed…
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The British School of Great Ayton: A Historical Walkthrough
It’s pretty rare to get a clear view of any of Great Ayton’s old buildings without some car or other parked in the way. Take the village library, for example—now known as the Discovery Centre since the community took it over. Originally, this building was the British School, set up to educate the poorer children…
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Roseberry’s Witches and the New Myths We Embrace: A Continuum of Credulity
According to the quaint tales of yesteryear, Roseberry Topping was once a preferred haunt of witches. Picture, if you will, three Ayton men, trembling with fright, witnessing a trio of broomstick-riding hags circling the summit and executing some arcane ritual, while sorrowful wails echoed through the night. The villagers, in their infinite wisdom, deduced that…
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The White Flint Legacy of Castleton
At the crest of an old tramway incline from the former silica quarries, once the workings of the Sheffield-based firm J. Grayson Lowood & Co. Ltd., one gazes across the Esk valley. Just off-centre in the distance lies the looming hump of Castleton Rigg, climbing to the highest point of the “Fat Moors.” The village…
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